I have been taking my students out on hikes for years now and the last few trips hve been greally great fun! We left the trails in some nearby areas and really got to explore, get dirty and find our way through the wilderness.

What is great about giving the kids these opportunities is that they get to problem solve, work together and succeed or fail together based on the real decisions that they have made on the hike.

If they don’t bring water they get thirsty, if they don’t have food they are hungry and if they aren’t in shape, then they get tired.

Keep up the good work folks and I hope you continue learning and exploring outside.

As I took a snowy hike last Sunday, I found this little guy that I will come back to clean and climb. There are two options for the first pitch (the right or left dihedral). Then I will move up through that overhanging off width to the top. It should be pretty good and I suspect that there won’t be too much loose and dangerous rockfall. The wide bit up top looks like #4’s, but I have been wrong before at this distance away. (My eye sight is getting worse and worse every year).

The views from the hike. The hike started with a totally overcast sky and it cleared out within a half and hour of trudging through the snow and wandering the loose hillside.

I started with a down jacket on and ended up wearing just a t-shirt and vest!

By the time that I got to the end of my hike, I had no intention of going back the way that I came. I was tired and did not want to get into the shade where the walking was easier. (I actually fell through the ice earlier on the hike and did not want to navigate the edge of the meandering creek again).So I luckily found a few passages up and out of the canyon and managed to indirectly find the road back to the truck. I did feel lost even though I knew where I needed to go. I was running through the pine forest following deer tracks and rabbit tracks through washes and over the flat terrain. It felt like a movie, all was silent, I was along and just charging through the empty desert. Pretty rad.

Normally after I find a new route, I immediately come back with a helmet and rope and see what the new route is all about. As the winter days get colder and the breeze stays consistent, I find that a WindX-treme neck gator is my go to article of clothing (that is the red thing on my neck).